


Nightmares are Bonding

by Thousandsmiles



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies), Pacific Rim Uprising - Fandom
Genre: Drift Compatibility, Drift Partners, Gen, Injury Recovery, Multiple Pov, Nightmares, No Slash, Post-Movie: Pacific Rim: Uprising (2018), The Drift (Pacific Rim)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 08:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14589243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thousandsmiles/pseuds/Thousandsmiles
Summary: Jake awakes to the sound of Nate in distress





	Nightmares are Bonding

**Author's Note:**

> I actually liked this movie and thought that this pair of drift partners had a lot of potential.
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Pacific Rim movies.

_Jake POV:_

Jake awakes to the sound of Nate in distress. He blearily blinks open his eyes from where he was sprawled over two terrible med bay chairs to see the other man clearly in the throes of a nightmare. He scrambles of the chairs, almost brains himself on the floor in the process and makes it to Nate’s cot in time to shake him awake.

 “Wha?” Nate said.

“Hey bud,” Jake says and then instantly pushes him back down because Nate starts to sit up. Freaking idiot. Doesn’t he know he has stitches on his side?

“Woah!” he says. “Stay down man, or you’re gonna rip them stitches.” Nate obligingly stops moving and drops his head back on the pillow, pain making his brows crease. Jake cards his fingers through the front of his hair which is matted to his forehead with sweat. He knows from experience having your head cooler and the sweat dry off your skin makes it less likely that you’ll fall back into nightmares again when you finally drop of to sleep.

“Water?” he asks and Nate nods. Jake pours out some water from the jug on the little table nearby and uses one hand to hold the cup t Nates lips and the other to brace his head far enough up so that he can actually drink the water instead of wearing it.

When Nate has drunk his fill he says, “Damn it, help me sit up.”

“No can do man. It’s 3 in the morning, if you rip something now, those nurses are gonna kill us both. They just got to rest.” Nate winces.

“Is there a lever or something to lift this thing up?”

It’s Jake turn to wince. “Ah no man. It’s just a regular cot. The other actual beds are all in use for people who got more injuries.”

“Oh,” said Nate. “That’s good,” he says after a beat. He settles back onto his swear soaked pillow and Jake stares at him for a moment and then sighs.

“Are you actually gonna be able to sleep again or are you just gonna lie there and pretend to?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Nate says irritably.

“I’m saying you ain’t the only one with nightmare experience,” Jake says flatly. “I sleep up sitting up too sometimes, when it’s bad. Makes me feel more prepared.” Nate's eyes flicker away from him and Jake knows he’s right. “Come on, budge up.” He says instead.

Nate frowns at him. “What?”

But Jake simply maneuvers him into a sitting position long enough to slide in behind him. He braces himself against the back rail of the bed and get his other leg on the other side of Nate so that the man is settled between his legs. Than he eases Nate’s back down to rest against his chest forming a literal human rising bed.

“Really?” Nate mutters but he doesn’t actually complain. Jake fuses for a moment, wondering where to put his hands because it’s Nates sides that are injured. He eventually winds up wrapping them around his drift partner’s chest and leans his head back again the wall.

“Go to sleep Nate,” he says. Nate huffs but manages to settle himself in a somewhat comfortable position that doesn’t pull at his stiches and closes his eyes. After a few minutes his breathing evens out and he falls back asleep.

Jake stares up at the ceiling and thinks to how before the academy he’d never have thought that he’d be in this position. Not that this is something Jake would do with any other guy either, but Nate is his drift partner (Sorry Amara, but she has her own drift partners anyway) and physical intimacy is so…less when compared to having stepped inside a person’s head. He knows that people who have never drifted use physicality to show closeness, to show a level of comfort with that person but people who’ve drifted? Using that physical connection is secondary, it’s almost meaningless. Right now, the intimacy of the position they’re in means as much to him as a clap on the shoulder.

Jake drifts off to sleep staring at the ceiling.

* * *

 

He awakes to someone staring at him. He blinks opens his eyes and says, “Hey smallie.”

“Hey,” she says. She glances at Nate. “He okay?”

“I think so,” Jake says. “Stitches will bother him for a bit but he’ll be okay.”

“Good,” she says. She looks young. “I just…. after Suresh….”

“Yeah I know,” he said softly. It’s never easy losing someone and she’d drifted with Suresh too in training. She knew him better than his own family.

Just then Nate jerks head twisting on Jake’s collarbone.

“Hey!” says Jake. “Hey man! Wake up!”

Nate jerks awake and blinks wildly for a few seconds and then relaxes back against Jake.

“Shit!” he says bringing up his arms to scrub at his face. “Nightmare are a bitch.”

“You get them too?” Amara says sympathetically.

“I don’t think there’s anyone in the shatterdome who won’t been having them now,” Nate says sighing. “Morning Cadet.”

“Morning sir,” she replied. “I came to see how you’re feeling.”

“Well enough cadet,” he said smiling at her.

“Good sir,” she said and with a smile at Jake she left the room.

“Wanna lie back down?” Jake ask him.

“Nah,” Nate says, “Help me get up. I have to pee.”

 

* * *

 

_Nate POV:_

When the door creaks open Nate is half going for a weapon before he notices who it is peeking in at him.

“Jake?”

“Yeah?”

“What is it?”

“Honestly?”

“No, I want you lie to me. Yes honestly.”

“I just came to see that you weren’t skewered by the thing’s damn tail.”

There was a pause while Nate’s tired brain processed this. Oh. “Yeah, still here. Got sliced but not skewered.”

“Heh,” Jake huffs out and walks in. “Yeah I can see that.” He pats Nate on the ankle. “Going to get back to sleep.” And then he’s gone.

 

* * *

 

The next night when his door slides open he’s already had the gun up and pointing. He blinks at Jake and said. “Still alive.”

“Clearly.”

 

* * *

 

The third night Nate groans. “Reoccurring nightmares are the worst.”

“Tell me about it,” Jake grumbles. He come in and sits on the edge of Nate’s bed so Nate knows it was bad this time. He doesn’t grudge him the few inches of mattress he takes up. He’d seen Suresh’s body. He can only imagine what his would have looked like if he had been skewered though the middle. Stuff of nightmares indeed.

On the eight night though he says. “Do you just wanna bring a sleeping bag in here or something instead of waking me every night?”

Jake looks stricken for a moment and Nate backtracks quickly because he didn’t mean to make him feel guilty.

“Jake,” he calls as his drift partner retreats. “Jake, Wait.”

“Nah it’s okay,” Jake says.

“Jake!”

Jake reappears in his doorway.

“I don’t mind but why don’t you just bring your cot over? There’s space for both of us and we’d both get more sleep.”

“Nah man,” Jake says again. “I’m good.” And then he’s gone. Nate sighs.

 

* * *

 

When Jake doesn’t show up in at his room the next night Nate grumbles the entire time he spends walking to the other man’s room. The door hisses open to show Jake sitting on the side of his bed, clearly shaking after another nightmare.

Nate glares at him. “I told you, you should have moved in your cot.”

Jake blinks at him and then lets out a wheezing laugh. “Something is very wrong with you man,” he says but’s it’s affectionate. Nate collapses grateful on Jake’s bed tired after the walk here, with his stitches pulling at him every step. He leans back against the wall and lets his legs dangle over the side of the bed. Jake scoots back so that he’s leaning against the wall too and after a moment they both manage to fall asleep.

The next day Jake moves his bunk over to Nate's room and if Nate wakes in the middle of the night to see if Jake is still breathing, is there and not turned into a mass of pulped flesh on the top of Mt Fuji, well that’s for him to know.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think.


End file.
